Cal swimmers embrace unusual training methods

National Championships

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, March 19, 2009

Photo: Kurt Rogers, The Chronicle

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Cal Swimmers Dana Vollmer, Erica Dagg, Hannah Wilson and Madison Kennedy they set an NCAA record last Saturday in the 400- yard freestyle relay leading the Bears to their first ever Pac-10 title.on Thursday Mar 5, 2009 in Berkeley, Calif less

Cal Swimmers Dana Vollmer, Erica Dagg, Hannah Wilson and Madison Kennedy they set an NCAA record last Saturday in the 400- yard freestyle relay leading the Bears to their first ever Pac-10 title.on Thursday ... more

Photo: Kurt Rogers, The Chronicle

Cal swimmers embrace unusual training methods

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Three years ago, none of the four swimmers was anywhere near California. One was at the University of Florida, another at Rutgers, another in high school in Hong Kong and another in Baton Rouge while her home town of New Orleans was still reeling from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

How they all wound up making history together is a testament to the appeal of Cal and its imaginative women's coach, Teri McKeever.

The Bears' 400-yard freestyle relay team of Dana Vollmer, Erica Dagg, Madison Kennedy and Hannah Wilson shocked everybody, including themselves, not so much by winning but by setting an NCAA record of 3:11.05 in the recent Pac-10 championships in Federal Way, Wash. It was the final event of the meet and put the finishing touches on Cal's first conference championship.

"I couldn't have asked for a better way to have my senior year end at Pac-10s," said Vollmer, who also won the 100 and 200 freestyle races. She also broke ex-Bear Natalie Coughlin's American record by leading off the 800 free relay with a sizzling 200-yard leg of 1:41.53.

Vollmer, who spent one year at Florida before transferring, is one of the most formidable swimmers in the college ranks. She'll go into the NCAA championships beginning today in College Station, Texas, with the nation's top times in the 100 and 200. Meanwhile, she and that relay team would have another American record except that anchor swimmer Wilson is from Hong Kong.

At 5-foot-6, Wilson is the only member of the quartet who's not 6-feet. She has competed in two Olympics, although she admits that being there at age 15 in 2004 was "extremely overwhelming. I felt I didn't belong there."

She was right at home at the Pac-10s. "Gosh, she moves," Dagg marveled at the teammate dubbed "Little H."

Dagg has been moving too, in more ways than one. She had wanted to swim for Cal since she was 14 and growing up in New Orleans. Katrina sent her scrambling to Baton Rouge for a pool for six months, but the inconvenience didn't lessen her determination to swim for McKeever. "She produces results," Dagg said. "You're working every single muscle in your body, and it doesn't necessarily have to be in the pool."

Kennedy didn't know what to expect when she joined McKeever after spending two seasons at Rutgers. She just knew she wanted a fresh approach, and, boy, did she ever get it.

On a day when the swimmers spent 25 minutes dancing to Beyonce, she said she "had no idea" when she transferred how different McKeever's training regimen was from what she was used to.

"At Rutgers I didn't think I would go any farther in swimming," she said. "I was just about ready to leave the sport. I wasn't where I wanted to be. I was frustrated with the whole thing - coaching, practices, meets, everything. Back East, it's very old school: Just pound out a lot of yardage. The coaching style is very removed. They tell the swimmers exactly what to do without a lot of positive feedback."

She e-mailed McKeever - "a shot in the dark," she said. They made a connection, and that's why Kennedy is now happily kick-boxing with her teammates in Berkeley. "I love it," she said. "It's fun to pretend you're beating someone up."

It's all part of McKeever's emphasis on varying the routine and mixing in a wide range of dry-land training, from Pilates and weights to exercise bikes and hip-hop dancing.

Just being on the same team as Vollmer was exciting, according to Kennedy. She remembered a Splash magazine article about Vollmer, who was 12 at the time. She said she thought, "This girl is crazy! She's already been to the Olympics, and I'm 12 too and I can barely stay in the pool for an hour."

Actually, Vollmer didn't make it out of the American trials that year, but in the 2004 Games, she helped the 800-free relay set a world record. She was bitterly disappointed she didn't get to Beijing in 2008, but is aiming at London in 2012.

So she'll train for the next three years in Berkeley. "I wouldn't leave Teri unless I was done swimming," Vollmer said.